Business cards are pretty important to promoting yourself. I’ve met several artists whose artwork, music, poetry, etc. I’ve loved, but the had no business card so I unfortunately forgot their name ten minutes after I met them and wasn’t able to see or purchase their art later on. If you are an actor, musician, writer or a photographer, etc. you never know who you’re going to meet along the way that you will need to give your business card to so that you can promote your services.
I’m sure there are people who think that if they don’t make the sale with you right then and there, it’s not going to happen later, but honestly that’s not true. Here’s a little example for you to stress my point:
I met an artist a while back and I really liked his work, but I didn’t have any money at the moment. He did not have a business card. Luckily I happened to see him again a week later at an art show and I bought the painting I had been eyeing the week before. That was pure luck on his part. If he had given me a business card, I would have definitely bought from him in the future. I ended up digging through my purse for a piece of paper and writing down his email the second time I saw him so I could buy more art from him in the future, but it would be much simpler if he just had a business card.
Aside from being an easy way to pass on your website and contact information to someone you meet for five seconds, business cards are also a point of professionalism. They let people know that you are an ARTIST, not just someone who slings paint around or plays music with their friends in their basement and gets money for it once in a while.
Your business card should reflect your style of art. If you do a lot of light watercolor paintings, you may want to go with pastel colors for your business cards. If you do bold, dark paintings, you would probably want to go with a dark background and bold font. For my artist business card, I chose one of my paintings for the background, which worked perfectly. Not only will the recipient get my information, they also get a sample of my art to take with them. This goes as well for musicians, writers, actors, etc. The colors, fonts and images should reflect your general style.
Here is a GREAT example of an artist business card: http://www.brennenmcelhaney.com/journal/?p=6
I would recommend having your business cards with you wherever you go, but most definitely at art shows, when you go to present your portfolio to a gallery, when you play a show, when you go to an open mic or an audition, etc.
Where do you get business cards made? Well, there are a lot of places, but my first answer would be VistaPrint. They offer a ton of different designs and are very cheap. I’ve gotten business cards from them, pens, stickers, postcards, and even stamps. Another really good one is GotPrint, especially if you’re a Los Angeles local, you can pick up your orders from their office and get them a lot faster and with no shipping charge.
The other option would be to go to a local printer or to another online store that sells business cards. I’ve used my local printer for business cards before as well, but they were more expensive than VistaPrint.